Thursday, November 29, 2007

Go See Some Cool Puppets in CT!

My friend, Craig Marin (who made the Soupy Sales marionette) is having a huge exhibition of his FLEXITOON PUPPETS in Greenwich, CT. There will be over 100 puppets, marionettes, props, sets, storyboards and production art from their television, film and stage projects.It runs from today, November 29 - January 5th.

The address is 299 Greenwich Ave 06830, and if you're anywhere on the east coast try and check it out. You can see a speedy promo at www.flexitoon.com"

Craig and I are trying to figure out how to do some live/puppet/cartoon stuff together all in one show.

12 comments:

Hey! That's interesting! I was just watching some Jiri Trnka puppet animation. Some of the puppet designs remind me a little bit of his wooden puppets. . . but that's probably just me. Really fun designs either way.

Maybe I can take a bus out to CT sometime in December. . I'll be sure to ask some friends if they wanna come along. Thanks for the info!

Looks fantastic. I adore puppetry. There is a real purity to it and what amazes me is how sometimes people can get such depth of emotion and bring a character completely to life that actually has littel or no change in facial expressions - it's all in the movement. Wonderful stuff.

I'd love to get into it. I imagine it's really difficult.

Unfortunately I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic for this but it looks great.

How do you feel about puppets in entertainment? On the one hand I'd think you wouldn't care for them because of the rigid facial expressions. Obviously not all approaches to puppeteering are successful as the wrong ones point out the medium's limitations... kind of like trying to duplicate reality in cartoons? Maybe someday you'd be able to detail what makes a puppet show successful.

Is there any stop-motion you like or does it all make your eyes hurt? Rudolph?

OH!!!!!!!! I stared at the black and white photo for a minute or two trying to figure out where it was from. I LOVED Shinging Time Station when I was just little, so it was an unexpected, but nonetheless welcomed wash of nostalgia for me to see that, and also put a name to the creator of said puppets.

I think the show would be a fantastic idea, I woouldn't be able to see something like that, but it really was a good feeling seeing that again. I'm guessing I should even give you a thank you.

Thanks so much for posting this John! I don't know if I can make it down to CT this month, but I love Craig's work and it looks like an awesome exhibit.

Re: Ironhorse's comment about rigid puppet facial expressions, I'm a puppeteer and find that there's about as much bad puppetry out there as there is bad animation (maybe more). Puppets can be really expressive if they are designed and performed properly.

Oh my god, Shining Time Station! I was just thinking about those puppets the other day and I was about to google-image them. My latent repository of old American folk songs comes from watching them when I was little. Good lord how I miss that show.